Girls throughout Latin America march in favor of abortion rights By Reuters

By Ana Isabel Martinez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – 1000’s of ladies demonstrated in a number of Latin American cities on Tuesday to commemorate the worldwide day of motion for entry to protected and authorized abortion, in a area the place the process is absolutely permitted solely in a handful of nations.

In Mexico Metropolis, ladies marched to the historic middle underneath the gaze of police with shields and riot helmets. Authorities put up protecting fences on some main buildings and monuments that previously have been spray-painted throughout demonstrations.

“I nonetheless do not know if I wish to be a mother, however I wish to have the precise to determine,” learn an indication held by a younger girl with a inexperienced scarf round her neck.

Earlier this month Mexico’s Supreme Courtroom declared it unconstitutional to criminalize abortion and, shortly after, the federal government stated that these jailed on accusations of getting terminated their being pregnant could be launched.

Lots of of different ladies marched in different elements of Mexico, together with within the cities of Cuernavaca and Veracruz.

Yearly, hundreds of ladies in Latin America die from unsafe abortions at a time when teenage pregnancies and sexual violence proceed to extend within the area.

In Colombia, the place abortion is allowed solely in instances of rape, dangers to the lifetime of the mom, or delivery defects, some 800 ladies marched in direction of the middle of Bogota.

“Girls are reminding states and societies that we’re full residents, not second-class, and that we now have the precise to abort, to voluntarily interrupt being pregnant, to determine about our our bodies, about our lives, and about our maternity wards,” stated Ita Maria Diez, a pacesetter of the Bogota demonstration.

A march was additionally held in Chile, the place the decrease home of Congress agreed to debate a invoice to decriminalize abortion for as much as 14 weeks after being pregnant.

STRICT LAWS

Scores of individuals in El Salvador waved inexperienced flags and marched via San Salvador en path to Congress to demand a loosening of the nation’s “strict” abortion legal guidelines.

Holding up banners saying “it is our proper to determine” and “authorized abortion, protected and free,” the Salvadoran protesters sought to strain legislators to ease one of many world’s strictest abortion legal guidelines, which prohibit termination of being pregnant in instances of rape and even when the mom’s life is in danger.

The proposals taken to the Salvadoran Congress have been named “Beatriz Reform,” in honor of a younger girl who in 2013 brazenly referred to as for an abortion to avoid wasting her life as she suffered from a continual illness, which took her life 4 years later.

“We’re asking for minimal measures so as to add to the Penal Code to ensure the life and integrity of ladies,” Morena Herrera, a outstanding Salvadoran feminist, advised journalists.

“It doesn’t require constitutional reform. It may be carried out now and whether it is true that there’s independence of powers, the Legislative Meeting should reply,” she added.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this month dominated out any amendments to the abortion legal guidelines as a part of controversial constitutional modifications his authorities is planning.

However a number of out of greater than 20 Latin American nations nonetheless ban abortion outright, together with El Salvador, which has sentenced some ladies to as much as 40 years in jail.